3io HUMAN LIFE IN RUSSIA
in time—before the famine set in which was the result of Stalin's
collectivization of agriculture.
The other nations interested in the fate of their brethren in
the Soviet Union have been able to exchange Communists
arrested in their countries for clergymen, or for other banished
or arrested members of the national group. They could
apparently do no more in view of the political and economic
relations of their states with Soviet Russia.
I explained above why M. Motta's speech at the historic
committee session at Geneva on the admission of the Soviet
Union to the League of Nations is of such great importance.
But it is of peculiar significance from yet another point of
view. It laid down—and the president of the League Assembly
confirmed this later in language that left no room for doubt—
that Moscow by entering the League bound itself to observe
in future all the stipulations of the Covenant.
Thus the entry of Moscow into the League has altogether
changed the situation. All the more so that no other speaker
contradicted M. Motta on grounds of principle. Quite the
contrary; even the French Foreign Minister, the late M.
Barthou, confined himself to arguing that conditions would
improve in the Soviet State once it had entered the League.
The fact that this view was taken of the'Soviet Union's admis-
sion cannot, therefore, be disputed. What conclusions can be
drawn from this?
In a long discussion in The Times on the subject if the
proceedings at Geneva—carried on in letters to the editor
of the paper from a number of well-known people—Lord
Cecil expressed the opinion that it would be much easier to
deal with a Soviet Russia that was a member of the League
than with a Soviet Russia outside that body. This view was
opposed to that of most of the writers, who held that the
unconditional admission of Soviet Russia to the League must
have a harmful if not positively disastrous effect; besides which
it was quite contrary to the principles of right on which the